Why Have Great Hospitality at Your Church Plant?

Love the following post by Will Mancini, one of my favorite authors. He has been conducting the ‘Guest Perspective Evaluation’ at churches all over for the last 10 years and has come up with 10 Mind Blowing Facts to Fuel Your Hospitality Ministry.

Here are a few that struck home with me:

  • You have more guests than you think. Use Will’s formula to estimate just how many.
  • Your guests are assessing very quickly whether or not they are coming back. [like within a few minutes]
  • A guest who is attending may represent years of prayer, service and invitation by a church member. [don’t screw this up!]
  • Studies show that guests will talk about their initial experiences 8-15 times with other people.

Nuts & Bolts

Having an intentional Hospitality Strategy assumed, one critical thing you need to decide is whether to have a high-visibility or low-visibility approach.

  • High Visibility– I don’t know whom to give credit to, but I heard someone say, “People say that the Church only cares about your money, so we’re going to fall all over ourselves to make sure they know we care about them.” With this approach, a church plant typically has:
    • Parking lot attendants
    • Greeters at the front door
    • Greeters writing out nametags
    • Greeters at the ‘sanctuary’ door
    • etc…
  • Low Visibility– props to my friend Vince Antonucci for this one. Some people, especially those with little or no church background, can get weirded out by all the handshaking and in-your-face smiling people. Imagine the courage an introvert has already had to muster just to make it to the front door! With this approach you may have:
    • An info table/stand where people acknowledge guests but don’t say much more than, “Let me know if I can answer any questions for you.”
    • ‘Mystery Greeters’ – plainclothes, friendly people that intentionally but nonchalantly approach people exhibiting signs of first-timerism (looking up & around for signage/directions, etc…)
    • etc…

What are you doing to capitalize on the Gospel opportunity presented by guests at your church plant?


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